310 ALHONDEGA ALI and the delicate filigree and tracery are in per- fect order, after a lapse of 500 years. The principal building was begun by Ibn al-Ahmar in 1248, and finished by his grandson Moham- med III. about 1314, but the principal decora- tor was Yusuf I. Since the Castil- ian conquest of .Granada it has undergone a se- ries of disfig- urements almost without interrup- tion. Charles V. modernized some of its most charac- teristic portions in order to fit it for his own -resi- dence. Successive governors after- ward pillaged it The French blew up eight of the towers and tried to demolish the whole; and it is only within ten years that the re- mains have re- ceived intelligent care. The palace is now under the charge of a gov- ernor and a num- ber of invalid sol- diers. The Al- hambra style is reproduced in a particular court in the crystal pal- ace at Sydenham; and Owen Jones has published a work richly illustrated on the ornamentation and architec- ture of the Alhambra. ALHONDEGA, a fortified granary in the snb- urbs of Guanajuato, Mexico, which gives its name to the first battle between the insurgents and the troopsof the mother country in 1810. Af- ter the priest Hidalgo had taken up arms, he first endeavored to attack Guanajuato, against which he marched Sept 28. Riufion, the commander, did not attempt to defend the city, but shut himself up with the Spanish troops and old Spaniards in the Alhondega. The Spaniards were well armed, and the troops of Hidalgo, except two Creole regiments, were equipped with slings, bows, pikes, machetes or cane knives, and clubs. The Indians assaulted the place with great gallantry, charging up to ti i Spanish artillery, which they sought to muzzk with their hats and blankets. On the other hand, the Spanish fire did fearful execution, until at last, the guns being without balls, shells were improvised by filling with powder the iron flasks in which quicksilver was brought Interior of the Alhambra from Spain, and firing them among the assail- ants. It has also been said that bags of dollars were used instead of grape-shot by the des- . perate defenders. At last Kiafion was killed, the works were carried by storm, and the whole garrison was mas- sacred. The num- ber of victims is estimated at 2, 000, one family alone having lost 17 members. The battle terminated on Friday night, and on Saturday morning not a Spaniard was alive in the city, and the very houses they had occupied were destroyed. AM, pasha of Janina, born at Tepeleni, Albania, about 1741, exe- cuted in February, 1822. His family had for genera- tions held the town and territory of Tepeleni as a fief from the pasha of Berat His father, having been driv- en from his home by his own broth- ers, afterward be- sieged them at the head of a troop of klephts and burn- ed them alive. His mother, of the bencerrages. wealthy Kamco family, was noted for her fero- cious character. At her instigation the young Ali affiliated with brigands, and having regained his father's estates, made marauding incursions into neighboring territories. His subsequent alliance with the pasha of Janina, and the ex- tent of his depredations, subjected him for some time to the displeasure of the Porte ; but after the execution of his father-in-law, the pasha of Delvino, and the marriage of the latter's suc- cessor with Ali's sister, he acquired supporters at the divan, and procured the appointment of sub-inspector of highways, in which post he compounded with robbers for a share of the booty. His superior was beheaded, while Ali saved himself by timely presents at Constanti- nople. During the war of 1787 and the suc- ceeding years, between the Porte and Russia and Austria, Ali Pasha, though keeping up- a treasonable correspondence with the Russians, rendered good service to Turkey. He obtained the appointment of inspector of public high- ways, with peremptory orders to suppress brigandage. Levying a strong force, he soon
